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The Souls Of Black Folk Summary

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In The Souls of Black Folk, author W.E.B. Du Bois discusses the struggles African Americans have faced in the American society for years. He presents the idea of double consciousness and says, “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” African Americans have made huge strides for racial equality and social justice since the first Civil Rights Movement in 1960. Despite being better off today, African Americans still remain unequal to those of the white population. Racial inequalities remain a prevailing issue in the United States, the minority still faces racial disparities in wealth, unemployment rates, poverty rates, housing patterns, and educational opportunities.
The United States has seen incredible changes to the daily life of African Americans since the 1960’s however, racial equality still remains a work in progress. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. …show more content…

The rate of unemployment among blacks is twice as high than the unemployment rate of the white population. Currently the jobless rates among whites is 6.6 percent, among blacks is 12.6 (“Racial, Gender Pay Gaps…”). Unemployment among African Americans who held a college degree still remained distinctively elevated compared to whites. In 2013, a study indicated that 12.4 percent of college graduates between the age of 22 and 27 were unemployed. For all white college graduates in the same age range, the unemployment rate stood at just 5.6 percent. This data points to the fact even African Americans who attend an institute are still more than twice as likely to be unemployed than a white counterpart (“African-Americans With College Degrees…”). The rise in unemployment among African Americans leads to the rising poverty rates of the

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One of the first things W. E. B. DuBois discusses in the first chapter of The Souls of Black Folk is the idea that African Americans are “problems.” Four decades after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans are not as free as the proclamation originally claimed. DuBois states that no man or woman “worshipped Freedom with such unquestioning faith” the way African Americans did for two centuries. He then goes into a discussion regarding how much disappointment the Emancipation Proclamation brought to African Americans. He suggests that “the idea of ‘book-learning’” supported African Americans ability to truly explore themselves, particularly “self-consciousness and self-respect.”

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Near the end of the Reconstruction Era, laws and amendments were passed to give African American’s rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was passed to forbid racial discrimination in public areas. However, Congress ended up repealing the law saying that it was unconstitutional. As a result, more laws dealing with segregation were passed. Plessy v. Ferguson was an important landmark court case because it paved way for African American civil rights movements that challenged the laws under “separate but equal.”

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“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” —Martin Luther King, Jr. To begin with, equality for all may not have been the immediate outcome, but nowadays African Americans are legally just as equal as Whites are. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 not only said that all races were equal, but it also equalized the discrimination of religion, sex, color, and national origin. The Supreme Court has had many cases that have impacted racial segregation in many different ways: Dred Scott vs. Stanford, Plessy vs. Ferguson, and Brown vs. Board of Education.

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The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended legal segregation in the US which demonstrates how the minimum independence given to African Americans during the Reconstruction era pushed them to strive for more equality. Furthermore, it shows how much closer African Americans were to achieving equal rights in the US. Although the Reconstruction era worsened racism in the US, it affected activists' determination on a greater

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W.E.B. DuBois wrote The Souls of Black Folk which talked about race relations between white and black people after the slaves were freed. It also explains both of their cultures in that time and why even though slaves were freed, they were still treated poorly. W.E.B. DuBois was a black activist who believed in the future of African American people and their culture. DuBois wrote The Souls of Black Folk to show the experience of being black in America after the slaves were freed.

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The Souls of Black Folk is a compelling non-fiction book written by African-American sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois'. The book was both a personal memoir of his experience growing up black in America, and at the same time a cry for equal rights. Divided into 15 chapters the book covers themes such as, racial injustice, and the ongoing psychological endowment of slavery and discrimination. The first chapter starts off by laying out Du Bois’s thesis for the book. It delivers as a wake up call, set forth the need for Blacks of the south to gain the right to a good education, the right to vote, and to be treated equals in they eyes of the law.

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In 2010, the average percentage of students between white and black high school graduates that will enroll in a two year or four-year college are very close, with only about ~1-3% difference between the two. Especially notably, the enrollment rates of blacks are above 60%. Way more than DuBois’s expected “10%.” Du Bois's idea of obtaining secondary and higher level education proved to be correct and

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Halfway through the twentieth century, African Americans endured a physical, mental, and emotional view of white supremacy, enclosed in laws, policies, and a variety of racial confinements and violence. During this time, Jim Crow laws -- the segregation of public places-- resulted in schools, transportation, bathrooms, etc being “separate but equal”. The Civil Rights Movement was an attempt of civil lawfulness for African Americans to acquire equal rights in the United States. Despite the continuous wars during the twentieth century and the elimination of slavery, discrimination against blacks continued--where they would undergo drastic forms of racism, especially in the South. Overtime, African Americans were tired of the racism and violence against them.

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African Americans face a struggle with racism which has been present in our country before the Civil War began in 1861. America still faces racism today however, around the 1920’s the daily life of an African American slowly began to improve. Thus, this time period was known by many, as the “Negro Fad” (O’Neill). The quality of life and freedom of African Americans that lived in the United States was constantly evolving and never completely considered ‘equal’. From being enslaved, to fighting for their freedom, African Americans were greatly changing the status quo and beginning to make their mark in the United States.

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In the early 1970’s, productivity and income growth slowed, and when growth rebounded in the 1980’s and 1990’s, earnings inequalities rose dramatically, as the highly educated pulled away from others and well-paid industrial jobs dwindled. Women and college educated workers continued to enjoy gains, but the earnings of less-educated men deteriorated. Employment declined most dramatically for less-educated African American men, who also married less often and became more involved in illegal activities. With these dramatic shifts, job training seemed less relevant, and experts and leaders instead grew more concerned with gaps in education and achievement across racial and income gaps. Politics and policies also changed—in the direction of pressing

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The book exposed the material causes of racism at that time and explained the effects that racism has on black identity. He wanted to show his readers the ‘strange meaning of being black’. He believed, at the dawn of the twentieth century, that the laws and the society that had prevented blacks from achieving equality in a post-slavery era would continue to pose a problem for black identity. He argued that, as a result of this, blacks and whites in the United States were separated by a ‘color line’. Du Bois’ book pioneered a related concept.

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Web Du Bois’s novel the Souls of Black Folk describes the racial discrimination that separated African Americans and whites in the United States. After the civil war, Du Bois suffers the racism and segregation of the twentieth century. He wanted to be viewed and respected equally by people from any society. He faced the daily struggles of a divided nation and being inferior to a white race. He believed that a man could be born Negro and American but should be offered the same opportunities and rights as a white and American man.

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Affirmative Action is a perfect example of that, as the authors stated it, “did bring many more people of color into middle-income jobs where they could begin to save, buy homes, and build wealth. However, the gap is still not closed” (396). What Whites fail to realize is that with the implementation of this policy, the number one benefactors of the program were White women, but many use the existence of this policy as the reason Whites don’t have a fair chance at employment and college

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Only 75 percent of blacks have received post-high school education, compared to 85 percent of whites. Not surprisingly, blacks on average also make less money than whites” (Philip M. Deutsch). It’s unjust that people of color are treated as inferior to white people, and it is that kind of social issue that interferes with the liberties of all Americans of

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Race difference due to lack of education “On average ( Negroes/ blacks/African-Americans) have worse jobs, income, and housing than white people. Do you think these differences are: Because most (Negros/Black/African-Americans) don’t have the chance for education that it takes to rise out of poverty?” The dependant variable, race differences due to lack of education, was chosen because of my personal desire to become a teacher in socially impoverished areas. I truly believe the quality of education that one receives is one of the most important factors for an individual in a society. Therefore, the racial difference due to lack of education can be used as an indicator for an individual’s well being.

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